EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. Additional upcoming events can be found on our Calendar. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

Individuals the Good Life – the Green Life is a documentary film featuring nine BC residents who are thinking about and taking action on climate change by developing community retrofitting solutions, teaching kids about green food, and taking public transit. The film can be rented or can be watched online.

Businesses
Outdoor gear companies are tackling global problems with:

Solar power (SunBell’s solar-powered lamp can be used in at least 10 different ways);

Cotopaxi’s Questivals sound like fun but also helpful: “In the most recent Questival (April 2014), over 5,000 people participated in flash mobs that picked up trash, they volunteered in a soup kitchen, or they hiked up a mountain in teams. The top three winners won service trips to destinations across the globe, and everyone got a picture with Paxi Smith, the llama.”

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. Additional upcoming events can be found on our Calendar. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Social activism takes many different forms. Some choose political lobbying and demonstrations. Others choose what can at first seem a more passive approach. We use words to influence others.

Listed below are a few books that provide useful advice for writers who hope that their words can make a difference in our world.

Writing to Change the World, Mary Pipher
In Writing to Change the World, Mary Pipher says, “I want to be part of the rescue team for our tired, overcrowded planet. The rescuers will be those people who help other people to think clearly, and to be honest and open-minded.” She goes on to say, “Good writing enlarges readers’ knowledge of the world, or empowers readers to act for the common good, or even inspires other good writing.”

In addition to talking about the writing process, Pipher looks at how we find our personal voice and reviews different publishing formats (from letters and speeches to songs and music). Pipher speaks from personal experience having written and advocated on issues ranging from immigration to the environment. It’s a positive, helpful book with useful tips for everyone who writes or wants to write. Here are a few examples:

“I discovered that one path into original thinking was to ask myself, Okay, that is your first idea. What are your second and third ideas?”

“Writing for the unconvinced, we want to be respectful and enticing. We need to invite them into our world and establish commonality.”

Escape from the Ivory Tower: A Guide to Making Your Science Matter, Nancy Baron
Scientists and academics are adept at talking to their peers, but they often fail to connect with a general audience and find it difficult to explain their ideas to journalists.

Baron says, “If you decide you want to inform those outside your research arena and help guide public discourse, you will need to learn a new set of skills. These include knowing exactly what you want to say, understanding your audience, and using common language to get your main points across clearly . . . . The more scientists can help journalists by cutting to the chase and answering the nagging question ‘why should we care?’ the more likely the story will make it past the editors.”

Escape from the Ivory Tower covers radio and television interviews as well as the print media and political lobbying. It closes with 10 steps to success: Resolve to speak up for your science; Set a goal and use it to guide your commitments; Think solutions, not just problems; Embrace criticism; Remember the four Ps: preparation, practice, persuasion, and passion; Be relentless; Cultivate connections; Expand your definition of success; Seize unexpected opportunities; and Set your own compass.

Winning the Story Wars, Jonah Sachs
In Winning the Story Wars, Jonah Sachs says, “today’s media landscape of unprecedented competition between messages has made us all marketers. Anyone who wants influence now – whether it’s to push forward a social cause, to sell products, or simply to change the way people think – has no choice but to step into our global media marketplace.”

Sachs believes that the most effective way to get our message across and influence other people is by telling stories: “We tend to listen to a well-told story because its characters serve as role models. Their fates strongly imply what will befall us if we follow a similar path.”

He goes on to say that “The winners of the story wars all have a single, compelling message that turns out to be the key lesson of every communication . . . . these storytellers clearly define their heroes, villains, and the conflict between them to show how their epic plays out in the lives of characters we can relate to. And these epics invite their audiences to be a key character in that conflict, helping to bring a broken world to a better place.”

Using plenty of examples from the marketing world, Sachs demonstrates how to assemble an effective story that will change the future.

Nature Sask Fall Meet, Sept. 19 & 20
Nature Regina and the Lumsden Valley Community Association will be hosting Nature Saskatchewan’s Fall Meet on September 19 and 20, 2014. The meeting will feature Friday evening at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and Saturday field trips to Nature Conservancy of Canada sites in the Qu’Appelle Valley.

Sustainable Gourmet, Sept. 27
The Saskatchewan Environmental Society is holding their 9th annual fundraising dinner on September 27 at the Saskatoon Club. The Sustainable Gourmet dinner features local food prepared by local chefs.

David Suzuki, Oct. 26/27
David Suzuki will be in Saskatoon (October 26) and Regina (October 27) as part of the Blue Dot tour. Check out the Blue Dot website for more information.

NewsGreen Guerilla SustainabilityBrie Bennett is offering a closer look at environmental sustainability in Regina on her Green Guerrilla website. Brie is the Waste Minimization Specialist for the City of Regina and a graduate of the School of Environment and Sustainability.

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. Additional upcoming events can be found on our Calendar. You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

Building Sask Green Conference, Nov. 13 & 14Building Sask Green is holding their annual conference in Saskatoon on November 13 and 14. There will be tours of four facilities using cutting-edge technology as well as LEED v4 and PassivHaus workshops. They will also be presenting awards to acknowledge excellence in Innovation in Sustainable Design, Green Architecture, and Leadership in Sustainability.

Show Insects Some Love
It’s summer, and I've been dealing with an ant infestation in the kitchen, so this article really hit home. Who do you think clears up more food waste in New York? Is it rats or ants? Well, the prize goes to the ants who are the world’s best unpaid garbage collectors.

Insects perform a lot of other important tasks as well. And yet, we do our best to eradicate them. Maybe it’s time to stop.

Take Action
People are less likely to litter if the area is clean or if they see someone else picking up litter. Set a good example, and other people will do the same.

EcoSask News is a weekly round-up of local news and events. Email us if you have items you would like us to include. Additional upcoming events can be found on our Calendar. We've been updating our list of local environmental organizations. Do let us know if we've missed anyone.You can follow EcoFriendly Sask by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or by email (top right corner).

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“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

EcoFriendly Sask strives to inform, encourage, and support Saskatchewan environmental initiatives. As a small, personal undertaking, we provide an online publication as well as grants to support local environmental projects. The Calendar page lists upcoming events, and we maintain the conversation on Twitter, or like our Facebook.

Individuals and organizations are encouraged to apply for grants of up to $500 to support local projects that will benefit the environment.